Many Christians today avoid thinking much about the wrath of God. We might sing about it once in a while - “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, his truth is marching on.” – but God’s anger is often far from our thoughts. We’d much rather think about God’s love for us; God’s mercy, kindness and patience.
Even the reading for today has been censored. When we stop where I just left off, the Lord is angry at first, and threatens to destroy the Israelites altogether with his fiery wrath. But Moses talks God out of such drastic action and we read, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.”
But if we kept reading we soon see that this is not a neat happily-ever-after story. For when Moses came down off of the mountain and saw for himself the sins of the people, he also became furious. Not only does he destroy the idol they have been worshipping, but also he smashed the two tablets upon which God had written the law. Moses, now angry on God’s behalf first made the Israelites drink a kind of golden calf Kool-Aid – made with the pulverized idol and water. Then he rounded up the loyal Levites in the camp and gave them God’s orders to kill all the worst offenders, numbering three thousand. And by the end of the chapter God punished the Israelites further by sending a plague their way. All this is to show that the Lord takes his covenant with his people very seriously. God will not be mocked. Exodus 20 tells us the Lord “is a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.”
In the heavenly courts the Lord is both plaintiff and judge. God charges his people with disloyalty. “They have acted perversely, they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said ‘These are our gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” I can almost hear God muttering, “after everything I’ve done for them, saved Moses from childhood death, prepared him for leadership, the ten plagues ending with the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven and water from a rock. They should be grateful and love me, but no, they can’t even wait a measly 40 days for me to finish giving my law to them.” Then he says to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stubborn and hard headed they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.”
If we were the jury of such a court we would have to admit that the Lord has a case. Not only did the people become impatient for Moses to return, but also they easily turned to worship a false god and attribute their salvation to this lump of gold. And they didn’t only think of this golden calf as a god – they gave a whole day to worship it, holding a festival, offering sacrifices and reveling.
When the thought of the wrath of God has me squirming in my seat, I am tempted to think, “Whew, I’m glad I’m not like those Israelites. I’ve never worshipped a golden calf and I can’t remember the last time I was at a wild party, reveling.” But then I realize I need to look deeper at myself, and fess-up to the ways and times when my unfaithfulness may be stirring up God’s wrath.
In Bible Study on Wednesday we noted that God called the actions of the Israelites perverse or corrupt. If we have Cecil B. DeMill’s film The 10 Commandments in our minds eye, and connect our common understanding of perverse then we are apt to think of wild orgies and drunkenness. But when we looked up the Hebrew word for perverse we discovered that it actually refers to something that has decayed, perished or wasted. And indeed these unfaithful acts of the children of God were destroying the covenant relationship between them. So the question Exodus 32 is asking of us is what in our lives causes our relationship with God to decay, or perish?
Certainly impatience with God is as common today as it was in Moses’ time. We don’t like it when God leaves us alone for a time, to wait and wonder what will happen next. It is hard for us to worship an invisible God and we don’t always have the spiritual maturity to perceive God in our midst. So we tend to rely on human leaders. Notice in verse one the Israelites didn’t even credit the Lord for leading them out of Egypt. They still thought Moses led them, and now that Moses has been gone for a few weeks they cast about for another leader. Impatience can cause our relationship with God to decay.
Aaron was apparently quite happy to fill in. With no objection, and absolutely no loyalty to God or his brother Moses, Aaron took the place of authority offered by the people. Rather than trying to correct them, or help them to be patient and loyal, he gave in to their demands authorizing their shift in loyalty, creating the graven image of a foreign god for them to worship and even leading the worship rituals. Such a story gives me pause to wonder about democracy today. Letting the majority select their own leaders and make their own laws does not necessarily result in the people doing God’s will. Though Jesus clearly instructed us to care for “the least of these” I am fearful that our individual selfishness may undermine our State’s good care of the poor, the elderly, the sick and the children when Massachusetts residents are given the opportunity to get rid of our income tax. When we live as if our neighbors matter less than we do, we let our relationship with God decay.
Like the children of Israel, we also make offerings to other gods. Exodus 32 names two kinds of offerings. The first are burnt offerings given in hopes that one will win favor. What do we do today in an effort to manipulate the life we want? I knew a man who offered his time and effort to enter the Publisher’s Clearing House every year – ordering magazines he didn’t really need or want in hopes that Ed McMann would one day come to his door. Workaholics sacrifice their time and energy to the god of success, hoping that all their effort will pay off and they will gain riches or respect or power. When we devote such resources for our own gain, we are worshiping idols and forgetting the Lord who abundantly provides all our needs.
The other type offerings mentioned in Exodus 32 are peace offerings. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” which refers to one’s total well-being. Though the end goal of life in covenant with the Lord is shalom, we often jeopardize this covenant when we make peace offerings to other gods. Think of all the money, time and energy that people give to fitness in hopes of warding off illness and improving their well-being. Or think of the rest of us, who give our resources to obtaining comfort food that makes us feel better for a time.
What other ways do we allow the false gods of this world overshadow, and chip away at our covenant relationship with the Lord? Are we willing to take a hard look at ourselves and see, knowing that our Lord is a jealous and wrathful God? We all have in one way or another exchanged the glory of God for dull images – like that of an ox that eats grass. We are called today to confess these sins, and turn back to the Lord our sovereign God.
The children of Israel had an advocate who helped them renew their relationship with God. In that heavenly court room, after the Lord made his complaint against Israel Moses spoke up for his people, begging God to think twice, to remember the covenant promise, which began with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and extended to their many children. Even after Moses returned from the mountain, after his rage he offered to go back to the Lord for them and make atonement. He asked God to forgive them – and if God refused and decided to blot out all of them from the book of life, Moses said he would rather stand with Israel and receive the same punishment.
Like the Israelites, Christians are not required to stand alone in our sinful state. We also have an advocate who stands with us in complete solidarity - Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor who goes to the Father on our behalf so that our sins of infidelity may be forgiven and our covenant relationship between the Lord and us may be restored. And as restored children of God we can once more gather around the throne of the Lord and worship him in spirit and in truth. May it be so.
No comments:
Post a Comment